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Rays host Pitch, Hit & Run team championship round

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By David Adler
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MLB.com |

ST. PETERSBURG -- Robbing home runs wasn't part of the Rays team championship round of Major League Baseball's Pitch, Hit & Run, but that wasn't going to stop the 7-to-14-year-olds gathered at Tropicana Field on Sunday from doing it.

Taking the field after the Rays' 5-0 loss to the Mariners, the participants warmed up for the Pitch, Hit & Run event, sponsored by Scotts, by long-tossing, doing high-knees and, of course, lobbing balls to each other to rob at the right-field fence -- because it's not every day that a kid gets to step onto Major League turf.

Connor Hallman, who won the 9-10-year-old boys division, only needed two words to describe how he felt on the field:

"Great. Amazing."

All 24 competitors were recognized with a short pregame ceremony along the first-base line, and the event itself was held after the game. The winners of each age and gender division will have a chance to advance to the national round of Pitch, Hit & Run if their scores are among the top three nationally in their division.

Bennett Mayfield, the representative from Pitch, Hit & Run headquarters who coordinated Sunday's event, said it was an impressive accomplishment just to make it to the team championship round. He talked about the program afterward.

"Well, it's a free program, No. 1, which is obviously encouraging -- but more importantly, it gives the kids an opportunity to advance," Mayfield said. "It is a competition. The winners from today have the chance now to go to the All-Star Game and compete in the national finals of Pitch, Hit & Run, shag Home Run Derby balls and basically be treated like an All-Star during MLB All-Star week."

During the competition Sunday, the young ballplayers had to pitch six baseballs at a 17-by-30-inch target 45 feet away (girls used softballs and pitched from 35 feet), run 160 feet around the bases -- from just past second, around third and to the plate -- and hit balls off a tee, which were judged for distance and accuracy.

The Pitch, Hit & Run event features 600,000 participants nationwide, competing in 4,100 local competitions. The 30 team championship rounds will conclude June 28.

Sherer made it to the national round of the competition two years ago in the 8-9-year-old girls division, and was impressive in all three phases of the competition on Sunday.

Hallman, who also won his team championship round last year as an 8-year-old, wasn't the only Hallman in the competition -- his brother, Cole, came in second in the 11-12-year-old boys division as a first-time participant. Cole had the best pitching round of any competitor, throwing five of his six pitches for strikes with a smooth, consistent delivery.

Connor threw one strike but made up for it in the hitting and running rounds -- and surprised himself in the process.

"I can't believe I made it with only one pitch hit," Connor said. "That's crazy."